Beni Imo an Okinawan Superfood

Beni Imo or Okinawan purple sweet potato is one of those foods that could be classified as a true superfood. This is because one medium sized purple sweet potato contains over 20000 international units of beta carotine vitamin A, which is four times your recommended daily requirement. It also contains 1/2 of your daily requirement of vitamin C in just one spud. This is in addition to being loaded with fiber, something that many people are lacking in their modern day fast food diets. There are a couple different varieties of these purple yams that range from a color of white/light purple all the way to the most beautiful shade of royal purple you have ever seen. I was lucky and was able to get some of the Darkest variety recently while visiting Mistuwa Marketplace in Arlington Heights. Here is a couple pictures of them. I placed the "Baked" potato I cooked on a green plate to show the truely deep hue of the purple once it is cooked.

I can remember being at my in-laws house in the village of Yoza, a small hamlet of Itoman, and hearing the beni imo man walking down the narrow side streets crying out the words "Yaaaaaa-Kiiiii-Mooooo" in an acient means of product marketing. The cart he was pushing had a charcoal fired roaster that would have fresh hot Beni Imo ready to eat. The tasty potatoes were probably about 200 to 300 yen apiece at that time. Not bad for all the work that guy was doing pushing that cart around everywhere.

Recently, I have noticed them showing up in more and more Asian food stores around the Chicagoland area. This is unusual because many times they can only be found closer to the westcoast. I believe the reason for their scarcity in the midwest is because when they are grown outside of the US they must be irradiated to prevent insect introduction into the states. This process of treatment with heat and ultraviolet rays does not harm the potato just the bugs that may be hiding. The process however is not cheap and as a result it becomes non-cost effective to ship them.

I hear they are also extremely popular in high end Japanese and asian restaurants. And have heard them mentioned several times while watching the food network on television. Now that you know they're out their please don't buy every last one of them I need them for my diet. Try looking at places like Mitsuwa or H Mart for these purple yams. Maybe they will get more in if the demand increases. Expect to pay around $2.99 a pound for these tasty spuds.